Goodbye Work Jeans

Kade still changes his clothes, on average, 10 times a day.  That's not an exaggeration.  I tried to keep count one day but he'd only been awake for 1 hour and I was already up to 4 changes, so I gave up.  I think I've mentioned it before but he dresses for whatever he's doing. 

 Basketball players wear shorts:

Firemen wear gear:

Construction workers wear sweatshirts (the ones building all the new houses on our road do anyway):

Wrestlers wear sweatpants:

These 4 pictures were taken in the span of 30 minutes.  

Anyway, the point of this blog is that we FINALLY convinced Kade to throw away his work jeans!  The hole in the knee was so big you could see half of his leg sticking out.  The other day he got a little carpet burn and we told him it was because of the hole.  We also convinced him that "real construction workers" don't have holes because they would get sore knees.  That, combined with his already sore knee, was enough.  This morning he threw away his old jeans and wore his new "Struction Mans" jeans.  I have to admit, Erik and I were both a little sad to see them go.

The last picture we have of the old jeans (he changed his outfit to match Dad's).

Hello new work jeans!!!!

We are STILL waiting to hear back from the birthdad registry regarding Mason's adoption.  One adoptive couple we talked to said they had to wait 60 days!  We are praying it doesn't take that long for us but we are already at day 44.  Crossing our fingers we get some good news this week!  

He's been tracking movement in the room and following voices like a champ for awhile but just these past couple days we've caught glimpses of the elusive smile!  He saves his biggest grin for the ceiling fan but once in awhile he'll give us a little something.  I have yet to capture it on film.  In the meantime you'll have to enjoy what I have caught on film....some impressive cheeks!

One thing adoptive couples learn quickly is to never "count your chickens before they're hatched".  Our lives are completely at the mercy of someone else, so we can never plan anything until the ink dries.  We are still waiting to hear back from the birthdad registry to see if Mason's birthdad registered for rights.  

So, Erik and I have been waiting to set up Mason's room until we know, for sure, he's ours.  This means he's still in our room which is directly across the hall from Kade's room.  Kade is 3 1/2 and like most kids that age, he has no concept of inside voice.  His whisper is a quiet yell, his normal voice is about as loud as you'd talk at a rock concert.  Mason is 5 weeks old now and he's starting to leave the "newborn-sleep-through-anything" stage.  Needless to say, we are chomping at the bit to hear back from the registry so we can move on with our lives and set up their bedrooms!

Other than that, things are still going really well!  Mason is still fairly easy, although he puts up a stellar fight at bedtime!  Kade continues to love on his little brother every chance he gets!

These pictures are still "old", but there's too many cute ones to pass over!

Mason David!!!

I've been dying to do this post for a month!!  Because of schedules, Mason's birthmom wasn't able to sign papers until 2 weeks after he was born and then she got another 2 weeks after signing to change her mind.  That puts us at a month!  So, here goes....

On Sunday, February 9th, at 1:20 in the afternoon I was at work when I got a call from our social worker, Jodi, informing us that there was a newborn baby boy waiting for us at the hospital, if we were interested.  He was born at 4:20 that morning.  I called Erik, who was out to lunch with Kade at the time.  We both had a mini freak out and then made plans to meet at home ASAP.  Luckily I was basically done at work, and I have some great coworkers who finished the rest for me.  Kade went to the farm (no arm twisting there), we threw a bunch of things in a bag and hopped in the car.  We were on the road by 3:15.

On the way, I googled boy's names and read a bunch off to Erik.  Mason immediately stuck out to us.  David is my dad's name and since Kade's middle name is William, which is Erik's dad's name, it seemed fitting.

When we finally got to the hospital and we met our little man for the first time, 2 things stuck out the most to me:  his hair and his cheeks....he's got a lot of both!!

He is the exact opposite of Kade in every way!!  Except size.  He's actually bigger than Kade was.  

9 pounds 1 ounce

22 inches long

I hope he keeps his dark hair, I love that I have 2 boys who look completely opposite!  He also pretty much only cries when he's hungry, he loves to snuggle and he already has his days and nights figured out.  So far he's a pretty easy baby!  He does have some pretty bad gas though.  Kid can clear a room pretty easily!

People always want to know about the birthmom.  Mason's birthmom didn't choose us, we just happened to be next in line on the list.  She's in her early 20's and has a young daughter already.  We haven't met her and from what we've been told, it sounds like at this point she's not sure if she wants a relationship.  We hope that changes because we'd love for Mason to know where he came from.  I truly think it's best if birthmom's are involved so if adopted kids have questions when they are older, they can ask their birthmom themselves.  There's nothing more frustrating than always wondering and never knowing!

We will be forever grateful to her because by choosing adoption she answered our prayers and made our dreams come true.  We had been hoping for another boy since our track record with birthmom's having girls has been horrible!  

Kade is head over heels in love with him.  He kisses and hugs Mason all the time, he always wants to hold him and feed him.  So far, Kade hasn't acted out of sorts which is incredible considering he had zero time to adjust to the thought of another little man in the house!  We'll see if it's still this way next year, when Mason is into all of Kade's things :-)

Since I have a month's worth of pictures, I'll just post a few of our first few days home.  He looks so different already!

At the hospital, this is a Classic Mason Expression

Heading home on monday afternoon!

First family of 4 picture!

First bath

First time Kade held Mason without the help of adults.  You can see my hovering shadow to the left of the pic :-)

The 8 billionth kiss from Kade!

This big brother truly is nothing but awesome!

We're still playing the waiting game with announcing our news.  If our prayers are answered, next week's post will be a big one :-)

Swimming lessons started last week.  We had the choice of putting Kade in the 2-3 year old class or the 3-6 year old class.  We chose 2-3 but regretted that decision about 5 minutes into the first class.  The kid is still a fish and he's too advanced for that age group.  Oh well, the whole point is to be comfortable in the water and he definitely is!  We're still working on keeping our mouth closed though.  We got home and he complained of a stomach ache.  Then he puked up about a gallon of pool water. Disgusting!

I'm not proud of how this Kade Quote started out.  My only excuse is it's been a long winter, stuck inside and we're getting on each other's nerves.

Me:  Kade, you are annoying me.

Kade:  You are gannoying me too!  (Not a typo, he actually said gannoying)

3 minutes later...major Mom Guilt setting in...

Me (wrapping him in a big hug):  I'm sorry.  You don't annoy me Kade.  You make me very happy and I love everything about you.  You are smart and funny and nice and a great helper and...

Kade:  Mom.  And I'm a stud.

Lastly, because I love comparison pictures....

2010

Reed on top.  L to R:  Kade, Paige, Carter

2014

Reed, still on top.  Paige, Kade, Carter.  

Time flies!!!